Struggling with 'store what you eat'

[CookieMumsters]

As the title says really, I've been building up a little stock throughout the year with one eye on covid / self isolation, and the other on brexit. I've read the advice to store what you normally eat, and it makes a lot of sense to me but I'm finding it remarkably difficult.

Most of what we eat is fresh, lots of fruit and veg and dairy, and meat a few times a week. My freezer isn't huge, but the space we have is full of meat and veg and I'm trying to add tinned stuff into our regular rotation.

I dont really know what my question is, but does anyone else struggle with this? Any tips?

Yes I've realised that there are only limited answers to fresh fruit and veg, bread and milk, especially if you have fussy children!

On the bread front I have discovered part baked bread which keeps for a couple of months and is yummy. Not cheap though.

Store flour and yeast, make bread?

Potatoes keep for ages, as do sweet potatoes.

But I sympathise, as I struggle to feed (adult-ish, picky, autistic) DS without fresh stuff, as the only tinned thing he eats ever is tinned peaches- it was always a problem if we went camping.

Similar problem here! Do you have space for a freezer somewhere else? I’ve built a habit of prepping and freezing stuff that comes fresh from a shop - (meat and veg) and cooking from the freezer.

I’ve added a couple of thing to the freezer that I might not habitually use, like a bag of fries/sweet potato fries/frozen jackets. Enough for me to have an evening meal for about 3 weeks. I buy the fresh, use it mostly and then just keep an eye and ocassionally throw in my freezer carb stock and replace when necessary.

I also like fresh noodles for stirfry and pasta etc but keep dry for preps, use them maybe every third or fourth time of having that meals to rotate through stock appropriately.

I keep sweet potatoes, onions and garlic in the cupboard. I buy frozen butternut squash and peppers for curries, chilli, or soup. Dried mushrooms are cheap, not for the weight, but because you need a fraction of what you do fresh.

Do you use tinned beans and chickpeas? Puy lentils in the packet are good for replacing half of the mince in recipes. Tinned mackerel in pasta is good if living off stored food, or in salads and sandwiches now.

I have lots of fruit and veg in the freezer and in my cupboards lots of herbs and spices, pasta, rice, lentils, tinned chickpeas and sweetcorn and beans etc, obviously lots of salt and pepper and tomatoes and pesto. I batch cook then freeze, as no point freezing large quantities of meant which then can't be refrozen in batches once cooked. I have a stock of flour, sugar, oil, vinegar, other sauces for flavour. You can freeze butter, or keep jars of fats in a cupboard. Lots of stock. Long life milk. Dried and frozen herbs. Lots of pickles/ olives/ preserves/ jam etc. Crackers etc last a long time. Tortillas and part baked bread.

*large quantities of meat 😂

We get a weekly delivery of a fruit and veg box and you can add optional extras like meat,dairy, eggs etc
We’ve got lots of tins of fruit/veg as well as some in the freezer, I make bread and yoghurt

I’ve also bought some peas for sprouting, cress and herbs to try growing on the windowsill. Not much, but if we do end up living on tins (especially if the electricity goes and so we lose frozen veg) then it’ll be a little bit of fresh greenery!

Another way to look at it could be store what you would eat in an emergency if your fresh supply was reduced but are happy to donate to the food bank if not needed.

I came on to say exactly what Susan said.

And also what you would relatively happily work your way through, even though it’s different to your usual food. We’ve bought some tuna for example, which we don’t tend to eat, but we could. There’s a nice Jamie Oliver tuna pasta recipe that we could eat every couple of weeks.

Not the biggest fan of tuna here either Greyish but thankfully my DC love a tuna & cheese toastie. Love tuna pasta bake and tuna omelette is lovely and high in protein too and Omega 3 too.

Some dairy is pretty long life (although needs to be in the fridge) so can be bought well in advance of D Day. Waxed cheese truckles I believe are shelf stable and this is a great time of year to find them so that's another option for cheese.

Some charcuterie is also shelf stable and things like chorizo are highly flavoured so good as an addition to other ingredients.

We're not wild on tinned veg but tinned potatoes work really well in curry. We also have a stash of jarred roasted peppers as we actively like them!

Finally, you can dehydrate your own if you have the means, but can buy dehydrated fruit and veg. I'm very keen on dried raspberries although they go soft quickly when the packaging is opened.

Beyond that my only advice would be to prioritise what you have in the freezer in terms of what is likely to be most difficult to get/would be most missed from your diet.

Corned beef is an excellent substitue for fresh mince in all mince-in-sauce dishes such as bolognaise or shepherds' pie. My lot won't normally touch corned beef (good - more for me!) but when I tried it out in the dishes I usually cook with fresh mince, they wolfed it down and could not tell the difference.

I'm going to get a bit more corned beef because DH does the main shop and he has given us a surfeit of bottled bolognaise sauce. It's useful to have in. I also have a Jack Monroe recipe for meat loaf using spam or similar, tinned pears and stuffing mix. Not something I'd eat in normal circumstances but I'm going to give it a go.

Our breadmaker has been the best thing I bought this year, it's been really helpful being able to buy flour and yeast and knowing I can make bread with what's on the shelf. Quite comforting.

We've also signed up to a local veg box so will hopefully be able to at least buy seasonal veg from local growers. Fingers crossed. They also deliver milk and eggs.

Really Dilbertian I use corned beef in a pasta sauce but have never tried it in Shepherd's Pie, I will have to try it, thanks. I am also going to try crumble with tinned fruit as lots of people seem to rave about it.

Is there anyone out there who would recommend tinned meat, and if so what ones please TIA

We tried Asda's own tinned ham recently @MarshmallowManiac and it wasnt bad. Actually more ham flavoured than I remember it being as a kid.

@MarshmallowManiac corned beef is great can be used with potatoes, in sandwiches or made into a sauce for dinner like chilli con carne. We buy the chicken breast chunks in cans from Costco. Also very good. Also have bought the cans of chicken curry, chilli etc and they are fine too.

Also we do crumble with tinned and fresh veg. Actually my kids won't eat fresh pears but will eat tinned ones! 🤷

Haven't tried tinned ham for many years Cookie but will definitely give it a go thanks.

Thank you Imsayingnothing have tried it in a pasta sauce and love it, have never tried it in chilli, very interesting, definitely am going to try the tinned curry & chilli thanks for that.

@MarshmallowManiac Tesco tinned chicken curry is edible. I don't like any of the tinned meats as they are, but they are ok rinsed of the sauces and cooked up with onions/spices/your own gravy.
I got that tip from Tin Can Cook by Jack Monroe. The book is well worth getting imo, though I'm fairly certain a lot of her recipes are available online.

Whenwillow being 'edible' doesn't inspire me too much but will try it thanks. Yes I think when you add your own herbs and spices it does enhance the dishes. You have just reminded me that I bought Tin Can Cook many months ago must hunt it out. Thanks for all your advice.

Not thrilled about 'edible' either! The tinned meat is in the apocalypse stash. If it's not needed it'll go to the foodbank for some other poor bugger.
Having said that, DH has been unfazed by my brexit food test runs which have included them.
Definitely have food that'll be used first before going for that. My own diet is likely to become fairly vegetarian.

Good idea Whenwillow think I will do the same.Yes I would love to go mostly vegetarian but sure DC would whinge, any tips on what your family have loved and advice on how to get them to eat veg. The only thing about that Whenwillow is that we will be short on veg in Jan.

Found my Tin Can Cook book